In Defense of World War II Games

There are a lot of World War II movies. There's also a lot of books on the subject, as well as tabletop strategy games, and video games, the list goes on. WWII was so massive, so important, that its influence and legacy lives on. Things happened in World War II that are directly and indirectly responsible for events happening now. It was the last big war on Western European soil, a landscape many of us have a connection to or are familiar with. It was a war that accellerated technology, firmly moving war out of the industrial age into the modern age. So it goes without saying that the biggest appeal of the genre comes with its drama, location, its combatants, the mythology surrounding it (particularly the Nazi fascination with the occult) and its justifications.

That said, there are a lot of people who complain that there are too many World War II games. While that's an understandable viewpoint, it is a bit shortsighted and unfortunately the genre itself propagates it. Every time a game comes out set in WWII some people complain, which in turn causes other people to complain, following suit like lemmings. But World War II isn't a specific genre of game, it's only a setting that many genres from FPS to strategy, even an MMO, utilize.

My question is, why all the complaints about there being too many games set in World War II when there are hundreds if not thousands of games taking place in some generic sci-fi or fantasy setting? You could argue that "generic space or fantasy setting" could be any universe at any point in time. But that doesn't hold water in the face of, ironically, lack of creativity. Sci-fi settings nearly all have the same things: lasers, aliens, hyperdrives, et cetera. They always go out of their way to make sure the evil looking ones really are evil. Fantasy? Same issue- swords and sorcery. Elves? Check. Orcs? Check. Magic? Check. Magic armour? Checkity check. At least World War II was a real world setting and therefore has some built-in restrictions, which excuses them from the lack of originality/creativity argument, and in addition, it's far back enough in time that it avoids political issues that a game set in the modern day, or even as far back as Vietnam, would not. Science fiction and fantasy settings don't have these restrictions yet by and large they're all basically knockoffs of Star Trek, Heinlein, and Tolkien. It's totally the developers' fault, of course. With a sci-fi or fantasy setting, they have the option of showing players something new, but more often than not, they don't take that option. That makes it hard to find something that does something different, and to have it be good on top of that is like finding a diamond in a sea of shit. Fallout was revolutionary because it stepped away from the saturation of fantasy in the cRPG genre, changed the way cRPGs were played, introduced the concept of retrofuturism into gaming as a whole, and either avoided most of the usual science fiction tropes or used them deliberately. There is a new space RTS coming out called StarCraft 2. Lasers? Check. Aliens? Check. Glowing bits? Checkchekchchhcclhekcehefkkikekekekekekekekeke

Second of all, the two biggest contributers to the conception of WWII games being ubiquitous has been Medal of Honor and Battlefield 1942. Medal of Honor has what, 10 games in the series? They're pretty much all crap, too, with the exception of Infiltrator and to some extent Airborne. BF1942 had a huge following for years and is largely responsible for there being a heavy multiplayer element in WWII games these days, though it's been reduced to a bunch of hardcore clan fags who scream cheater for doing stuff that's described in the manual. Granted, there are quite a few WWII series, but to be perfectly honest World War 2 has been a common theme in games since the days of tabletop wargaming. I had a history teacher who had so many wargames I suggested that he could basically re-enact every battle of World War II from the invasion of Poland in 1939 all the way to the battle of Berlin. This tradition continued into the strategy genre of PC gaming, and into the RTS subgenre.

I think the fascination these days with World War II- a fascination which seemed to die out in the 70s and 80s, in part because of Vietnam- is due to Saving Private Ryan, which was the first WWII film to truly portray the sheer brutality of the war. It used to be, if a character died, he would just fall over, no blood- thanks to the censors that controlled Hollywood. As the censors lost power and faded away, it's become much more realistic, culminating with Saving Private Ryan. The film was revolutionary in the war movie genre, and established a certain style that would be used in war movies since. This happened just as FPS games were beginning to come into their own and break away from the "Doom clone" label.Okay, granted, there was Castle Wolfenstein way back on the Apple II, and then Wolfenstein 3D, but they weren't really about famous battles- instead it played on the espionage and intrigue that took place behind enemy lines. The lack of realistic locations, too, was a result of the technology of the time. The first FPS to ever actually show some simile of WWII combat was actually a mod for Duke Nukem 3D that came out in 1997. The creators went on to make WW2GI, which sucked. The point is that Duke3D was one of the first games to portray a real-world setting as realistically as possible, proving that FPS games were more than just the same damn hallway over and over and over. This allowed for a level of detail that previous games could not reach- and thus the modern WWII shooter was born.

The truth is, there's nothing wrong with the genre itself. The problem isn't that there are a lot of games with that setting. It's that too many of them tend to share a lot of the same issues: an overreliance on the American viewpoint, lack of meaningful character development (something Brothers in Arms tries to fix, with very good results), overreliance on the most famous battles (Omaha Beach and Normandy come to mind), too much emphasis on the European front compared to the Pacific, very little plot (just because it's historical doesn't mean you can't expand on the story; this is made all the more apparent with the lack of characterization), and what plot there is tends to be the usual flag-waving "let's hear it for the grunts" trope that propagates the idea that America won World War II singlehandedly, a problem that afflicts most WWII films as well. If you're going to complain about WWII games, complain about the above issues. But there's no point in complaining about the whole of WWII- Europe, Africa, Asia- as a setting unless you're going to complain about fantasy as a setting or sci-fi as a setting.

Event Horizon: The Real Doom Movie

So I watched the Doom movie tonight, after having only seen 15 minutes of it in the past and putting off actually watching the whole thing for the last 3 years, partly because of how universally reviled it is. And I got to thinking, you know, there's another movie, completely unrelated to Doom, that's truer to what Doom is about than the movie actually based on the game.

In August 1997, a movie called Event Horizon was released in theaters. While ultimately a standard space horror movie in the vein of Alien, its thematic elements, much of its set designs, and the plot, drew influence from a wide range of sources: aside from the Alien series, it borrowed elements from the original Russian version of Solaris, 2001, The Haunting and Hellraiser. in addition to non-film media such as Doom and the tabletop wargame Warhammer 40,000. Some of the thematic influences are quite obvious. The Gothic-inspired design of the Event Horizon seems to be lifted from Warhammer 40,000, as is the concept of a dimension of pure chaos that sits between point A and point B when a ship attempts to bend space and time in faster than light travel. Teleportation being a gateway to hell was also a majour theme of Doom, as well. The pacing and mood of the film is not unlike Alien and Aliens, starting off slow but building up into a crescendo. The film was written by Philip Eisner (also known for cable channel Sci Fi's Firestarter: Rekindled) and an uncredited Andrew Kevin Walker (perhaps best known for Se7en). It was directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, who was riding high on the success of the Mortal Kombat film and wanted to go back to making R movies. Regardless of what one may think of most of his work (among them the Resident Evil movies and Alien Vs. Predator, which in my opinion is an absolute abortion that still doesn't reach the level of failure presented by Alien Resurrection), this film turned out to be quite good.

The year is 2047. and the Event Horizon, a ship that has been presumed lost, having disappeared without a trace in 2040, has suddenly reappeared near Neptune. The Event Horizon was designed for faster-than-light travel, by a stardrive that would bend space and time to create a wormhole extending to any point in the universe. Unfortunately, when the original crew attemped to use it, the entire ship disappeared. Dr. William Weir, played by Sam Neill, designed the stardrive and so accompanies the rescue ship Lewis and Clark. When they arrive at the Event Horizon, the crew is absent, the ship is without power, and bioscans return strange readings. As the rescue crew explore the ship, the stardrive activates itself and pulls the engineer in, sending a shockwave that damages the Lewis and Clark. Things only get worse from there, as Dr. Weir and the others are plagued by visions of the things that haunt them, the engineer returns, comatose, only to attempt suicide, and Weir himself falls prey to the influence of whatever had taken over the ship. In the end, Captain Miller of the Lewis and Clark sacrifices himself to save the last surviving members of his crew.

The film was a failure at the box office, and it got a bit silly towards the end ("you let me burn! *fwoosh*") but became a cult classic, to the point that a special edition was released in 2006. Paul Anderson is a hack, but he managed to pull off some excellent direction. I think the main difference between this film, and the Resident Evil and Alien versus Predator series is that Paul Anderson didn't write Event Horizon.

Then there's the Doom movie.

The general plot of Doom, both the classic games and the more recent Doom 3, has been that attempts to create teleportation technology have opened up a gateway into Hell. The Doom movie gets rid of all that. In the movie, released in October 2005 with a high production budget, the monsters that roam the UAC facilities are revealed to be humans turned monstrous through an added 24th chromosome. These monsters are able to infect others through bites, and in the end it is revealed that the monsters tended to go after the more unsavoury characters, such as a Marine named Portman, a perverted asshole obsessed with sex and a bit of a coward. Private Hudson his not. The hero, John Grimm, is injected with the chromosome as a last-ditch effort to save his life, and becomes superhuman instead, going on a rampage throughout the facility slaughtering monsters and zombies left and right.

My first impression of the movie was that they drew a good deal of their set designs from Doom 3. The plot is nothing at all like Doom, having replaced the Biblical concept of Hell as presented in the games with genetic modification with a morality twist and mixed it with Aliens. It's basically Resident Evil in space.

It's hard to decide if I like or dislike the movie. I remember there was a lot of pissing and moaning about the plot as details were revealed even before the movie came out, and the writer defended it to the death, blaming Hollywood for just about everything that pissed fans off. I'm not sure if the genetics plot was his idea or not, but the premise is frankly irritating especially in light of what Doom is supposed to be about, but the movie itself has high production values and the acting isn't shit-terrible for the most part. It definitely has an Aliens feel to it, but that's not saying much as sci-horror with a hidden, elusive enemy was basically invented by the Alien series and is nearly an ubiquitous trope now. Plot aside, it suffers in the same way Doom 3 did- too much trying to balance action and suspense, killing both. The movie fared better than the game, for the most part, but the only time it ever actually felt like Doom was the 5-minute first person shooter sequence. And even then it didn't feel like Doom 3, it felt more like Classic Doom- the classic, borderline silly run and gun that I grew up with. Which I guess kind of saves the rest of the movie- it's Grimm's Crowning Moment of Awesome, and the movie's as well.

So it comes down to this: Why do I call Event Horizon the "real" Doom movie? Because it embodies what I think Doom 3 should have been and what it clearly wanted to be- a high-suspense horror tale that relies on a cultural fear of classic, Fire n' Brimstone Hell to create tension, making the scary parts that much scarier. It's not as action-packed, but frankly the argument over "Modern Doom" and "Classic Doom" and whether one or the other should be action-packed or suspenseful is an article for another day.

Doom 64: The Real Doom 3

On December 10th, 1993, version 1.0 of the shareware version of Doom was uploaded to the FTP at University of Wisconsin. The sequel was released September 30th of the following year. On April 1st, 1997, Doom 64 was released.

Doom 64 was initially titled "The Absolution" but for unknown reasons Midway changed it. The name was retained for the final level of the game. Regardless of the name change, the game was a somewhat different beast from its PC origins. The original game, concieved as a mixture of Aliens and Evil Dead II, was nevertheless set largely in daylight or some approximation thereof. This had the effect of creating a feeling of relief when looking out upon those strange mountains after a few very long moments in the dark tunnels of the Phobos base, a snatch of daylight, however grey it was. Doom 64 on the other hand takes a more Aliens-style approach. The sky is dark and starry, a permanent night on an alien surface. The original version of Doom had no coloured lighting (a feature that wouldn't appear in id Software's own games until Quake 2) and while much of it was set in dimness or outright pitch blackness, much of it too was set in stark bright light. Doom 64's levels on the other hand would be nearly pitch-black if not for the dim glow spilling from the floors and ceilings providing light, just barely enough to see in some places.

While Doom on the PC had a focus on action, despite its dark tunnels, Doom 64 seemed intent on creeping the player out, creating tension and a sense of dread. The enemies and weapons were largely the same as always, but their appearances had been altered, in some cases quite drastically, and are overall much less cartoonish. Some of them had slightly different behaviour, as well- Lost Souls, the annoying flaming skulls that flew around and slammed into you, were much more aggressive; the Arachnotron fired two streams of plasma and the Pain Elemental, probably the most drastically different in appearance, fired not one but two Lost Souls. Some of Doom's monster lineup (such as the Spider Mastermind, but also most of Doom 2's new additions such as the Arch-vile and the Chaingunner) had been dropped due to cart space, and indeed the weapons themselves were less animated for the same reason. In the PC version, firing the shotgun resulted in the weapon being pumped- in Doom 64, the weapon, and its double-barreled counterpart, simply cocked back a bit, before resuming the ready position- behaviour which was previously seen in Quake. The plasma rifle no longer kicks back when you release the trigger, but does have a constant buzzing noise. A new weapon, called alternately the Alien Laser or the Unmaker, was originally described in Tom Hall's Doom Bible but never made it into the final game. The message upon pickup is "What the !@#%* is this!" and for good reason- it appears to be a lashing-together of alien and human technology framed by bones and dried skin. It fires a reasonably powerful laser that can kill a baron in a few seconds. However, where it really comes to shine are the 3 special keys scattered throughout the game. These keys serve two purpouses- the first and foremost is that they seal up the teleports in the final level from which an endless stream of monsters pour from, and the second is that they power up the laser. At its most powerful, the laser can kill the final boss in a matter of seconds.

Doom 64 had two basic settings- the haunted base, and Hell itself. The PC version of Doom often had a mixture of the two, particularly in its second episode where human technology and architecture was slowly being subverted. Tall steel support pillars became marble; monitors gave way to gargoyle reliefs. The third episode of Doom is set in Hell itself, and is portrayed in a fairly traditional way- hot, volcanic, under a red sky that could barely be considered a sky due to its nearly organic appearance. Doom 64's version of Hell is something else entirely, a much darker, more ambiguous world of caverns, ruins, forgotten tombs, small fortifications and structures floating in a void of misty nothingness. Thunder would roll out from the ominous clouds swirling over it, and in later levels the sky itself seemed to be on fire, huge flames broiling up in the distance. However none of the subversion present in Doom 1 can be seen in Doom 64- the two settings are kept wholly separate.

Doom 64 has often been compared to the original Quake, and it's easy to see why- aside from coming out within months of each other, Doom 64's environs, particularly its hellish portion, is similar in style and mood to Quake's. The original Doom's level design was in many places somewhat abstract, whereas design in Doom 64 is much more purpouseful. Its haunted castles and forgotten dungeons are reminiscent of Quake's... haunted castles and forgotten dungeons. They're both placing emphasis on moody lighting and unsettling shadows, with vaguely disturbing monsters to populate it. They both had a dark ambient soundtrack, as well, Quake's composed by Trent Reznor and Doom 64's by Aubrey Hodges, returning from the success he had with the similarly themed soundtrack for the Playstation version of Doom (which was mostly a "best of" version of Doom, combining Doom and Doom 2 into a single game.)

Doom 64 was a bit of a flop. It was not universally accepted as part of the Doom canon, and at the time was vastly overshadowed by Quake's fully 3D environments and monsters. Copies of it are hard to find nowadays and the Nintendo 64 is no longer in production. However, the game was ported, rather successfully I might add, to PC by a dedicated team of fans. Aside from some minour differences (and some majour ones like new levels) it's largely faithful to the original.

On August 3rd, 2004, Doom 3 was released. While its numbering would suggest that it is a continuation of the (rather sparse) storylines of Doom and Doom 2, it is in fact a retelling of Doom's story. Moving the action from Phobos to the more plausible Mars, it tells the story of the Union Aerospace Corporation and the utter decimation of its staff and the Marine units charged with their protection by an invasion from the forces of Hell itself- an invasion which you are witness to. Right way this sets it apart from the original game's plot- where in Doom and Doom 64, you are a soldier sent in to investigate and exterminate the threat (which draws from Aliens and its plot of the Marines investigating an abandoned colony only to discover a nestful of aliens) you are a soldier who has just been assigned to the place and were on your rounds when the invasion hit. Doom 3 seems to draw a great deal of influence from sources such as Event Horizon in terms of general aesthetics- in many places you will hear creepy whispering, and the appearance of any given area will without warning become a twisted, hellish version of itself- only to suddenly change back. Unfortunately any sense of dread or fright is undone by the nearly constant stream of action- around every corner is another monster to kill. While some would say this is what Doom is all about, I have to disagree. Doom 3's failings lie largely in its constant hinting at wanting to be something else but continually reverting to type. It wants to be System Shock 2 with its reliance on horror and telling an admittedly compelling story through audio logs, but those just seem tacked on to a generic post-Half-Life first person shooter.

Doom 64 has no pretensions. It is what it is- a significantly darker version of Classic Doom. It's a relic of the pre-Half-Life era, before the emphasis on realistic surroundings (realistic meaning a place that a person could believably live and work in, rather than plain empty rooms with no furniture, regardless of its overall setting of sci-fi or present day or historic/fantasy.) Its scares are more genuine than Doom 3 because it relies on a constant sense of dread that manages to persist even in the midst of a firefight. Doom 3 had very few truly tense moments- one in particular that I remember clearly is a hallway where a loud rumbling noise accompanied hellish symbols, strewn all over the walls and celing and floor, pulsing their way down the corridor- for once, you had no real idea of what was next. While such a visual effect was not possible in Doom 64, the older game managed to keep up its dark mood and maintain its creative roots in Aliens. It manages to do for Doom what Doom 3 failed to do- make Doom truly and honestly creepy.

10 games that have been very influential on me

Hi, sorry for the long wait since my last post. I suppose updates will be reasonably sporadic, but I'll try my best to keep this updated at least a couple times a month. Anyway today we're doing something a little special- ten games (or series) that have been particularly influential on me, whether its my tastes, my creativity, et cetera. These are in chronological order, from my earliest years as a gamer to more recently. This is by no means a comprehensive list- there are many other games that are influential on me but I wanted to stick with 10 or this entry would take up half a dozen pages.

Original Megaman series, particularly 2, 3, 4 and 5. I had spent my early gaming years with a NES, and while I had Mario, Superman, and a few other games it wasn't until I had played Megaman that I'd found a series that I deeply loved. I loved the idea that I could pick which level to go to and that the bosses all had weaknesses to some other boss weapon (which took me a while to figure out). I loved the enemy design, the music, the level design, everything. To this day 4 and 5 are my favourites; probably 'cuz they were the ones I actually owned.

Sonic the Hedgehog series. My mom had friends in Michigan (we lived in Cincinnati, Ohio, so they were quite some distance away and we only saw them a few times a year), and their daughter had a Genesis. I wound up discovering the Sonic games there, and being totally blown away by the gameplay, the bright lush colours, and of course the music. I liked the fast-paced gameplay edged with the sense that if you fucked up it could kill you. It pretty much quickly developed into an obsession that would stay with me for some 8 or 9 years. I wouldn't get my own Genesis until Christmas 1995, but that didn't stop me from having the Game Gear games and buying the comics every month. Pity the series has fallen so out of favour in the last 10 years.

Wolfenstein 3D. In the early years of the 1990s I didn't have a real PC, just an old Tandy from the 80s we used as a word processor. But my neighbor had a PC. I would go over there and play Simcity and this random game where you were a space probe on some ship and there was something out there that killed you. One day I sat down at his PC and there was a little something called Wolfenstein. Now, earlier that year we had bought a used PC, it was a 386 with no sound card, and I played lots of Apogee and Epic shareware games on it. I had heard of something called Wolfenstein 3D and the concept intrigued me somewhat- shooting Nazis always does, though I didn't really fully understand WW2, even after seeing Schindler's List and reading Elie Weisel's Night, until I had seen Saving Private Ryan. My neighbor had it, though, and I went and started it up, and was completely sucked in. It was just the shareware, but I spent many an afternoon sneaking my way through what I thought was this brilliantly-depicted Nazi dungeon, stabbing Nazi thugs in the back. Spent a lot of time wallhumping, as well. This was my first FPS, so of course it's significant.

Doom. Again, this was something I had on my neighbor's PC, and again it was just the shareware but I spent many an afternoon working my way through Phobos, shooting monsters in the face. I think this game gave me a sense of dread not even Wolfenstein did, and I would constantly come back to it over the next 3 years to play it. Around the time my parents divorced, I got a disc of shareware FPS games, Doom being one of them, and I've... never really looked back since. I've been playing this thing pretty much since 1994 and I really don't intend to stop, even though I rarely actually play the original maps anymore. (Just FYI: Doom 64 = best official Doom game ever.)

Duke Nukem 3D. The shareware version of this little gem I'd picked up the same year I got the shareware disc with Doom on it, and I loved it. I had no sound thanks to Quake, but I played through it so often I knew the maps like the back of my hand. I think my teenage self was thrilled by the idea of porn shops and a stripjoint, but that was only the first two levels; but the mere idea of a realistic-looking (at the time) environment in which to shoot things thrilled me. I've been waiting for Duke Nukem Forever ever since.

Half-Life 1 (and its expansions, particularly Opposing Force.) I did not get a chance to play this until 2000, when my mom bought me a brand new Gateway computer (which I named Zayats) to replace the crappy eMachine (and the other, broken crappy eMachine that it replaced) I'd been using for the past year, and before that was the 486 that I'd broken the sound on to get Quake 1 working (and it worked!) I had saved enough money from doing stuff for my grandfather in the afternoons so I went to EB and bought a used copy of HL1, and despite having to play in software mode with 64mb of RAM (which led to stuttering every few minutes, similar to what has plagued some HL2 owners) I was blown the fuck away. For years I'd been playing Doom and Quake and Duke Nukem 3D and, hell, I'd just bought Redneck Rampage earlier that year. I had no idea that there were games like this- an emphasis on story, with a slow-paced progression that focused on tension rather than KILL EVERYTHING THAT MOVES RARRRGH like we all grew up on. I played this bitch so much- and all the singleplayer mods for it I could bring down over my poopy little 56k modem on fucking AOL- that I burned myself out on it for a couple years. (HL2 would later revive my interest in the series.) The irony is, the Starship Troopers TC for Duke Nukem 3D had just come out when I bought Half-Life, and in its own way is very much inspired by Half-Life at times- even using some of its music. There are a few vanilla Duke3D usermaps that have the same feel and progression, as well- I think at least one of them is called Holiday Holocaust and I remember the contest that spawned it and a few other great maps. So it was a lucky thing for me that after playing all these Duke 3D maps I discovered where their style had come from.

Fallout 1. My first real foray into cRPGs, and I was just blown away. I think I was really pulled in by the intro; it was just so damned DARK. The rest was just incredibly fun. I'll never understand the die-hard fans, but I certainly know why they're fans in the first place. I bought Fallout around the same time I bought Half-Life, and the two of them are pretty much forever intertwined for me thanks to it, along with Duke Nukem 3D. But more than that, it kicked off my fascination with retro as well as the post-apocalypse. I doubt I'd ever be interested in the TV series Jericho if it weren't for Fallout. (Jericho just got cancelled, too, it's not coming back for a 3rd season, which has me so pissed I could skullfuck someone. CBS are a bunch of dickslaving barrel rolling twatdivers.) I'm never going to be a die-hard cRPG player (for one thing, I bathe) but I'll always find myself coming back to FO1 every few years.

Deus Ex. This was one of the first games I played after upgrading Zayats in 2002. I still did not have a video card (I'm not even sure I understood the concept of it at the time) but when I tripled my RAM Deus Ex was suddenly playable, though the sound was frequently fucked up and fuzzy. My first playthrough ended sometime in Hong Kong; I didn't really know what I was doing. A few months later I fired it up again and played through it, still having no idea what the fuck I was doing but I managed to beat it, and was frankly blown away by the fairly deep choice of endings. I particularly liked Paul's final discussion with you at the end (having gone out of my way to save him the second time around)... there was just something so FINAL about the last hour of Deus Ex. That's probably why Invisible War was such a fucking disappointment. But you know what? The 2nd time through (discounting the first, unfinished play that ended in Hong Kong) on a new PC (Dagon)? Now that I knew what I was doing, the 2nd time was a fucking TRIP. You notice so many things that you didn't the first time; somehow only the 2nd one is that trippy, the first is just wtfwtf what am i doing and the third is like yeah yeah i've seen this before. This game has proven quite influential on me because I see quite a few of the little things in it happening today.

Thief series. I admit it. My first contact with this series was an ISO of Thief Gold I got off of Suprnova. Same for Thief 2. This was back in 2004; I've since bought physical copies of all the Thief games (Thief 1 excluded, never saw any point), but I kept the Gold and 2 ISOs so I don't have to mess with the discs and worry myself half to death every time I want to play. But when I first played TG way back in March 2004 my mind was blown. I had been interested in the series after reading reviews of Thief 3, and I was like "that sounds cool, I should try it!" Not wanting to play 3 until I'd played the others (not like I could at the time anyway) I gave Gold a try and frankly I've never stopped being a fan since. Hell, that's how I found my way here- I was googling for help on the game locking up on me! I was completely drawn in by the steampunk world and the heady feeling of stealing stuff and getting away with it. Garrett was a great protagonist/anti-hero, and frankly the Haunted Cathedral (and the Old Quarter surrounding it) are one of my favourite parts of a game. I love a good stealth game, but Thief was more than just that, it was this amazing universe that just sucked me right the fuck in.

Half-Life 2 (and the episodes.) Well, uh, what can I say about this game? It's one of the best games I've ever played. It takes everything great about HL1 and makes it better, and it's obvious that the 8 years or so in between have also had their influence. You can tell Counter-Strike has had a bit of influence in the game as well, and possibly Day of Defeat. When the game first came out I didn't really care- having burnt myself out on HL1 I was too obsessed with Thief at the time to give a shit. Then a couple of friends of mine told me about Ravenholm and I was immediately intrigued, being the faggot for zombie horror that I am. So I bought it, with my first paycheck at my new job at the time. After discovering how much I hated Steam, and that the installer was a piece of shit, I finally got the game going and while it wasn't the best thing ever on my poopy little GeForce FX 5200, it was good enough for me to keep playing. I was SUCKED IN. It engrossed me on a level only Thief had done before. I think when I was on the airboat (a favourite sequence of mine, btw) and I was like oh shit that tower is about to fall on me oh shit oh shit then WHAM it slams down behind me, I realized, holy fuck this is the best game ever. Yeah, HL2 has its flaws (which I think the Episodes fix nicely) and yeah, not everyone likes rail shooters (and some of them think Halo is better which entitles them to death by AIDS fire) but for sheer atmosphere, presentation, et cetera... well, this game will continue to be one of my favourites for years. No, it's not all that innovative, being merely a refinement of HL1, but what it does, it does so well you can't help but not care about its flaws, particularly the rather shaky performance and other issues it had in the year or so after its release.

Games and series that would've been on this list but I really had to pick and choose: Metal Gear, Stalker, Silent Hill, Blood, Metroid, Resident Evil, Final Fantasy 7 (my first true jRPG), Day of Defeat, Counter-Strike (a very negative influence until a couple years ago, actually), several others. I may do another list with these games in the near future.